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Partridges Aux Choux

Partridges cooked with cabbage, bacon, sausage, and herbs, simmered in broth and served with a sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Partridges Aux Choux

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage and partridges

  1. Insert strips of bacon into the breasts of the partridges.

  2. Cut the cabbage into quarters, wash it thoroughly, and soak it in cold water for 1 hour.

  3. Remove the stalk from the cabbage and drain it well.

  4. In a large stewpan, layer the cabbage over the partridges.

Braise

  1. Add carrot, onion with clove, sweet herbs, pepper, Bologna sausage, and blanched bacon to the stewpan.

  2. Pour broth into the stewpan to cover the cabbage.

  3. Add melted dripping to the stewpan.

  4. Cover the stewpan with a circular piece of thick white paper before placing the lid on the saucepan.

  5. Boil and simmer for 1.5 hours.

  6. Remove the partridges from the stewpan and keep warm in the oven.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain the cabbage.

  2. Place the drained cabbage in a saucepan with pepper and salt.

  3. Stir the cabbage until all moisture is evaporated.

  4. Layer the cabbage in a dish, arrange the partridges on top, and add more cabbage in the center.

  5. Slice the sausage and bacon.

  6. Cut the carrots into cork-like pieces for garnish.

  7. Melt flour and butter in a stewpan for 3 minutes.

  8. Add 1 pint of good gravy to the stewpan.

  9. Boil the gravy for 10 minutes.

  10. Strain the sauce and serve in a tureen.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which is gently cooked in the broth and cabbage.
Savoy cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs flavour from the braising liquid.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the lean partridge breasts moist.
Dripping
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the braise.
Bologna sausage
Contributes savoury, seasoned meat flavour to the broth and cabbage.

The step that matters

Stirring the drained cabbage until dry. Excess moisture left in the cabbage would dilute its flavour and make the dish watery, so it must be reduced until no liquid remains.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, carrot, clove, pepper):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, carrot, clove, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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